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U.S. Think-tank Seeks to Promote Immigrant Integration
Hispanic Business
February 7, 2007
The Migration Policy Institute on Tuesday opened its new National Center in Immigrant Integration Policy and
emphasized the role of society in ensuring that the said integration is carried out in "all areas."
At the ceremony, held at MPI's Washington offices, the institute also launched the book "Securing the Future:
U.S. Immigrant Integration Policy."
The creation of the center is an important advance in an age in which many of the workers in the United States
are immigrants and in which more than "one in every five children in the country live in an immigrant family," MPI
President Demetrios Papademetriou said.
The MPI said that one of the problems surrounding the integration of immigrants is the lack of coordination among
the various policies to do so.
Thus, explained Margie McHugh, co-director of the center, MPI's new online database - Data Hub - will "unite all
the available tools" to foster the integration of immigrants in the United States.
McHugh's colleague Michael Fix said that one motive for the creation of the center was the conviction that the
"integration of immigrants is a question that's in the U.S. national interest."
Data Hub gathers together information that to date had been dispersed across the Internet, and the effort is
founded on data provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The project concerns providing immediate access to updated information on the integration of immigrants in the
United States and international migratory movements, said Jeanne Batalova, the manager of Data Hub.
"Securing the Future," published by MPI, presents a series of questions on immigrant integration that are
discussed by a number of experts, some of whom were present at the center's inauguration Tuesday morning.
One of those experts, Donald Kerwin, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.,
addressed integration from the viewpoint of human rights and the common good.
If immigrants' access to good health care, education and general welfare services is denied, "it harms the
welfare of all of us," he said.
Another of the questions dealt with in the book is that of immigrants' access to health care in nations like the
United States, in which health insurance is indispensable if one wants to receive top-quality medical care.
Leighton Ku, an expert on health policy with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, emphasized the language
barriers immigrants must confront when they come to this country.
Fifty-five percent of non-naturalized immigrants in the United States do not have insurance and many of them
also have communication problems with the doctor because they speak different languages, Ku said.
Education is also a key component of immigrants' integration in the United States, and Ruby Takanishi, president
of the Foundation for Child Development, discussed some of the education challenges facing immigrants here.
She said she believes that integration must be fostered in the schools "where the citizen of tomorrow is being
molded," and she also emphasized the need to "think about it as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, Delia Pompa, vice president for education at the National Council of La Raza, lamented the lack of an
education policy for immigrants and proposed that more attention be paid to the educational needs of immigrants
and their families
Hispanic Business
February 7, 2007
The Migration Policy Institute on Tuesday opened its new National Center in Immigrant Integration Policy and
emphasized the role of society in ensuring that the said integration is carried out in "all areas."
At the ceremony, held at MPI's Washington offices, the institute also launched the book "Securing the Future:
U.S. Immigrant Integration Policy."
The creation of the center is an important advance in an age in which many of the workers in the United States
are immigrants and in which more than "one in every five children in the country live in an immigrant family," MPI
President Demetrios Papademetriou said.
The MPI said that one of the problems surrounding the integration of immigrants is the lack of coordination among
the various policies to do so.
Thus, explained Margie McHugh, co-director of the center, MPI's new online database - Data Hub - will "unite all
the available tools" to foster the integration of immigrants in the United States.
McHugh's colleague Michael Fix said that one motive for the creation of the center was the conviction that the
"integration of immigrants is a question that's in the U.S. national interest."
Data Hub gathers together information that to date had been dispersed across the Internet, and the effort is
founded on data provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The project concerns providing immediate access to updated information on the integration of immigrants in the
United States and international migratory movements, said Jeanne Batalova, the manager of Data Hub.
"Securing the Future," published by MPI, presents a series of questions on immigrant integration that are
discussed by a number of experts, some of whom were present at the center's inauguration Tuesday morning.
One of those experts, Donald Kerwin, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.,
addressed integration from the viewpoint of human rights and the common good.
If immigrants' access to good health care, education and general welfare services is denied, "it harms the
welfare of all of us," he said.
Another of the questions dealt with in the book is that of immigrants' access to health care in nations like the
United States, in which health insurance is indispensable if one wants to receive top-quality medical care.
Leighton Ku, an expert on health policy with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, emphasized the language
barriers immigrants must confront when they come to this country.
Fifty-five percent of non-naturalized immigrants in the United States do not have insurance and many of them
also have communication problems with the doctor because they speak different languages, Ku said.
Education is also a key component of immigrants' integration in the United States, and Ruby Takanishi, president
of the Foundation for Child Development, discussed some of the education challenges facing immigrants here.
She said she believes that integration must be fostered in the schools "where the citizen of tomorrow is being
molded," and she also emphasized the need to "think about it as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, Delia Pompa, vice president for education at the National Council of La Raza, lamented the lack of an
education policy for immigrants and proposed that more attention be paid to the educational needs of immigrants
and their families
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202.635.2556
202.635.2649 fax
media inquiries:
e-mail me
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media inquiries: Melissa Williams
Media Relations Coordinator
(202) 635-5810
Media Relations Coordinator
(202) 635-5810
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